Gallery
Latest Member Photos
Many of our members are accomplished astrophotographers, and a few are award winning! If you’d like to use a photo for news media or other purposes, please ask as copyright often applies. Email photos@sas.org.au if there is a photo you’d like to use, and remember to credit the photographer.
A telescope is a time machine they say, looking into the past at events like this that happened long ago, in this case about 3-4000 years ago. But this is also a look into the future of us. The small blue star at the centre was something like our Sun, and eventually collapsed at the end of it’s life and burst violently like this, leaving a good amount of oxygen (blue) and other stuff floating around space ready to be recycled into someone else’s problem. Dumbbell Nebula M27 .. quick integration between cloudy nights, less than 1hr Ha luminesce and ~2hrs colour using C11 EHD telescope at F7, zwo 1600MM and QHY247C #astrophotography #celestronrocks #qhyccd #m27 #dumbell
Did you know you can take photos of the planets during the day? They’re hard to find and almost invisible to the naked eye. The heat brings focus and equipment issues and stacking is harder with less contrast for the software to align with. This is my first try on Jupiter this afternoon at 4:30pm in broad daylight .. the photo isn’t great but doing non-solar astronomy in the day is weird and worth a shot! C11 Edge HD telescope, 2.5x powermate, @qhyccd_astropic QHY462C colour camera. #astrophotography #jupiter #celestronrocks #qhy #qhyccd #byronbay #dayastronomy
Here is a fresh Saturn for you! I didn’t manage to reveal the polar hexagon I know there is room for improvement but I did get the equatorial banding better this time. Saturn is straight up after sunset here in Australia and still looking good! Celestron 11” Edge HD, 2.5x powermate, ZWO RGB filters and ZWO 174MM camera. #astrophotography #byronbay #celestronrocks #saturn
Bleary eyed this morning but I also caught Mars looking incredible with it’s slight remaining phase as it gets closer and it’s polar ice cap! 1am AEST with C11 telescope 🙂 🍅 #astrophotography #byronbay #mars #celestronrocks #themartian #universetoday #publicdomain
OMG I finally nailed it! Jupiter 2hrs ago using @celestronuniverse 11” EHD / 2.5x powermate, RGB filters @zwoasi 174MM & WinJupos! Easily the best planet photo I’ve taken ever! I’ve never got this storm detail before especially near the poles! 🍻🇦🇺🔭 #Jupiter #astrophotography #winjupos #celestronrocks #byronbay
The two craters in the lower left are called Messier and Messier A and were formed by the same impact at a severe angle (1-5°) which @NASAAmes & @Caltech figured out in 1978 by shooting things in their specialist "gun" range / impact chamber. (Taken with C11 Edge HD, 2.5x powermate, & ZWO174MM) #astrophotography #moon #celestronrocks #byronbay #dontvisitnsw
Took this shot of Jupiter in poor conditions last night which isn't too shabby! Jupiter's less popular posterior. Celestron 11" Edge HD, 2.5x Powermate, RGB Filters, ZWO 174MM. Best 7% of 3x90second video frames stacked. #celestronrocks #jupiter #astrophotgraphy #byronbay #dontvisitnsw #jove #youresa #universetoday #photographingspace
Is NGC 7293 the eye of GOD?? Spoiler alert, no. Just a dying star passing wind. Taken this week from the backyard spaceship! Celestron 11" Edge HD, ZWO1600MM, QHY247C, True Colour. Science breakdown of image in new 13min video : YouTube.com/erfmufn .. about 4.5 hours total exposure time over several long nights where most of the data was discarded! It’s the fish that John west rejects that something something ... #astrophotography #celestronrocks #universetoday #youresa #eyeofgod #truecolour #ngc7293 #helix #helixnebula
Just finished this close view of “Corona Australis” 🇦🇺 .. confused, I go on a tear about what the f—- this even is and why it exists in this 10 minute rant and analysis on my YouTube ... https://t.co/c7rxYtA4tr (~3hrs, C11” EHD, ZWO1600MM & QHY268C) #celestronrocks #astrophotography #youresa #universetoday #byronbay #corona #australis
Two insane views of the Milky Way using the newly released @skywatcheraustralia Star Adventurer 2i star tracker and my Canon 6D mk II with its kit lens 28-135mm .. at each extreme. I really can’t take for granted that this view is from my driveway which is nuts. I live in an urban area in Byron Bay but they chose to keep the light pollution down. We all risk losing this view more and more with every street light. First shot is 5x60s and second is 3x120s , both iso 3200 and stacked. #astrophotography #staradventurer #skywatcher #canonaustralia
Here is a test for a colour camera I can’t afford but got to have a play with. Being a colour camera I was able to shoot this core region of the M8 Lagoon nebula without any filters. 21 x 180s with QHY268C-Professional which has a 26MP resolution.. after drizzle this image was massive. Taken with Celestron 11” Edge HD and 0.7x reducer. Camera hands on and behind the scenes on this image on my YouTube. #astrophotography #qhyccd #qhy268c
"MERMAID WATERS" - M8 Nebula Detail - I was doing some test shots under the nearly full moon so didn't expect this to look like much but I can't stop looking at it. The detail is from the wider M8 Lagoon nebula but I focussed in with my big telescope (C11) on the little mermaid feature which is surrounded by at least a dozen bok globules I've never seen before. Normally I'd shoot the lagoon quite wide because the whole area is quite stunning but the dark dust clouds, blue reflection nebula, spires, globules, and cascading tiered emission clouds are all really quite spectacular to see all together. It almost looks like a Japanese painting.
Celestron 11" Edge HD
0.7 X reducer (F7)
22 x 180s / ZWO 1600mm
Colour data from 2019 (QHY12 CCD) #astrophotography #celestronrocks #photographingspace #universetoday #byronbay #nsw #mermaid #mermaidwaters #lagoon
Well it ain't much anymore but Comet Neowise made his way to Australia. No telescope or tracking. Pictured here over Ocean Shores, NSW. Taken from the lighthouse cafe in Byron Bay. 4 x 10s / ISO 3200 / F5.6 / 91mm w/ Canon 6D mk II on a regular tripod. This is comet #6 for my stamp collection of bright comets! (inc McNaught, Lovejoy, Linear, Panstars, Swann) #canonaustralia #byronbay #oceanshores
As I sat on the beach yesterday looking at the clear blue skies and terrible surf I thought “that’s good seeing - finally!” .. Jupiter just past opposition but moon Io went odd-shaped in post despite its shadow being perfectly round. Still ok results with C11 telescope! You can tell Jupiter is near opposition because it’s so large relatively but also because io’s shadow is so close to it. #celestronrocks #astrophotography #planets #youresa #universetoday #byronbay #jupiter #saturn #starstuff
Feels good to be back shooting nebulae again! M20 is a stunningly dual colour region captured here with separate R, G and B runs and broadband luminance. If you aren’t sure what that means, basically I’m shooting with a black and white camera (ZWO 1600mm) but instead of narrowband filters with small bandpasses for chemical signatures, I’m using broadly open filters across the spectrum so the result is a more natural, more realistic representation of the objects natural colour palette. I have increased the saturation of the colours to make it bolder however.
Still working on taming this new setup (Celestron c11 Edge HD / 0.7x reducer / CGX) to get the most of our it but this is a good hint at what it’s capable of. Some star bloat and skew and internal reflections from the ZWO glass on the bright stars which is a problem.
Red : 12 x 3m
Green : 15 x 3m
Blue : 11 x 3m
Broadband : 37 x 3m
Total Integration Time : 2.25 hours over 2 nights. #celestronrocks #astrophotography #cosmicisolation #universetoday #youresa #bintelastronomy #byronbay #nsw #space #nebula
A closer look last night at Centaurus A the weird and mysterious radio galaxy using the Celestron 11” Edge HD with 0.7x reducer / Zwo1600mm for broadband (unfiltered) exposures totalling 66 minutes and the colour data from the rasa11 and QHY247C camera 🙂 Behind the scenes video on my YouTube but mostly community drama and less about actually taking this image this time. #astrophotography #celestronrocks #qhyccd #universetoday #nexdome #photographingspace #bintelastronomy
Wanna see my Pillar of Creation? I’ll show you mine if you show me yours. Here’s my take this year on the Hubble classic. 2.8hours total integration with my Celestron 11” Edge HD and narrowband filters for SHO treatment. Painful behind the scenes video now on YouTube. 🙂 #astrophotography #celestronrocks #hubble #universetoday #photographingspace
View from my spaceship. Stay tuned for more exciting views from beyond the clouds and/or solar system. Eventually.
How to prove the Earth is round in mere seconds using a Celestron 660mm telescope and a phone camera! Flat Earthers will say it’s edited to justify the cognitive dissonance this assails them with! 😂 ... Or many other theories to explain multiple examples of big boats before or beyond the horizon! Leave your best flat Earth defences in the comments if your IQ is below 90. #flatearth #no
With the Byron Bay lighthouse effectively "off" it's much darker out on the cape. Tonight I watched the core rising through a lightning storm offshore which made the whole scene quite dynamic. 1 x 20s / ISO 2500 / f3.2 Canon 6D Mk II / Tokina 16-18mm @ 16mm #canonaustralia #byronbay #visitnsw #nsw #canon #milkyway #astrophotography
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Historical Photos
~ International Observe the Moon Night 2019 ~ 
SAS Monthly Meeting 
